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ESCANABA
POINTS
OF
INTEREST
Downtown Escanaba along Ludington Street. This 15-block main street sports a colorful sprinkling of neon signs, taverns, shops, ending in a delightful park and historic lighthouse ...
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Ludington Park. Five miles of pathways in this striking park on Lake Michigan's Little Bay de Noc connect natural areas, a marina, an island with 3,500-foot sandy beach ...
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Delta County Historical Museum. This four-room museum covers local maritime, timber, and railroad history, plus early life in Delta County. ...
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Portage Marsh Wildlife Area. Here's a great place to spot all kinds of birds at the mouth of Portage Creek, where a 2-mile spit creates a protected bay and coastal wetland ...
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Sand Point Lighthouse. Built in 1867, the lighthouse has been dramatically restored to its original appearance, with furnished keeper's quarters circa 1900. Climb the tower for a nifty view! ...
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First Avenue South's historic architecture & visual finds. The striking turn-of-the-century churches, public buildings, and homes evoke Escanaba's glory days ...
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Noc Bay Trading Company. Here's an unusual shop that sells the authentic regalia materials, from bone beads to feathers, used by participants in Native American powwows ...
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Sand Point Lighthouse
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 | | The prim Sand Point Lighthouse is in Ludington Park. at the head of Ludington Avenue. Visitors may climb the tower for a good view of the marina, harbor, and Little Bay de Noc down to Gladstone and out to Peninsula Point. | This trim brick lighthouse, dating from 1867, has such a natural, settled look, it's hard to imagine that it's been drastically remodeled twice. In 1939, after landfill to create Ludington Park's yacht harbor put the lighthouse two blocks from the water, the Coast Guard discontinued using the the light, raised the roof, and made the building into a family residence for the Coast Guard commander.
In the 1980s the Delta County Historical Society got a long-term lease on the disfigured local landmark. It was a historic preservation feat to lower the roof and reconstruct the tower. The society conducted a successful search for a fourth-order Fresnel lens and an authentic old lantern room, found left on the ground at Poverty Island, off the Garden Peninsula.
Inside, the keeper's quarters are furnished with local donations to approximate its appearance circa 1900. Visitors can climb the stairs and look out from the tower.
In Ludington Park at the head of Ludington St. Open from June thru Sept. In June thru Labor Day open daily 9-5. In Sept: daily 1-4. (906) 786-3763. $2/adult, $1 under 13, $5/family. Handicap accessible: no. Photo: Dr.Ching-Kuang Shene, Michigan Technological University
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